A lesbian couple sits in the gallery and watches the 2005 Texas gay-marriage debate in the Senate Committee on State Affairs in Austin. Voters later that year overwhelming approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state.((Thomas Terry / AP))
That?s the question Texas Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) wants Attorney General Greg Abbott to answer, reports the Houston Chronicle. Just days after Dallas County commissioners agreed to give stipends to unmarried and gay employees whose partners buy individual health insurance, Patrick reportedly asked Abbott?s office to issue an opinion on whether that and similar programs in the state violate the Texas constitution.
Texas voters in 2005 overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment that bans governmental entities from recognizing anything similar to an opposite-sex marriage. To qualify for the stipend from Dallas County, employees must sign an affidavit saying they?ve been with their same- or opposite-sex partner for at least six months. They also must show proof that they have operated a household or joint finances for the same period of time.
?The question is, are they pushing the envelope to the edge or are they violating the law?? Patrick told the Chronicle. ?I would like the Texas Attorney General to opine on that question.?
The amendment and gay activists? fight for marriage equality have clashed in Dallas County in recent years. And Abbott has already successfully defended the gay marriage ban here before.
In 2009, State District Judge Tena Callahan ruled that the state ban violates the U.S. Constitution?s equal protection clause and said that two men who were legally married in Massachusetts. Abbot intervened in the case and won during an appeal that reversed Callahan?s decision and instructed her to dismiss the divorce case.
Earlier this year, a gay couple was arrestedafter the men handcuffed themselves together in the county records building after being turned down for a marriage license.
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